Foes lining up against coastal power plant plan

Encina, new station would both operate

When NRG Energy states its case tomorrow for building a new power plant in coastal Carlsbad, it will face off against a number of opponents, including the city itself.

One group that has grown in size and influence since the plant was proposed two years ago is a community-based organization called Power of Vision.

Hearings on NRG’s proposal to build a 540-megawatt power plant on a 23-acre site west of Interstate 5 and south of Agua Hedionda Lagoon begin tomorrow at the Hilton Garden Inn in Carlsbad. They will end Thursday.

The California Energy Commission, which has licensing authority over power plants, will conduct the hearings, which resemble a trial, with principals presenting evidence and cross-examining witnesses.

Julie Baker, a Power of Vision co-founder, said she became involved after she learned more about the plant and thought the power company was misrepresenting some facts, which were then being repeated in published accounts.

“It’s gotten in people’s minds that if this is built, (the) Encina (Power Station) will come down,” said Baker, a Carlsbad planning commissioner.

Encina is NRG’s 965-megawatt, beachfront plant. NRG would shut down three of Encina’s five steam turbines if the new plant were built, so the 56-year-old Encina plant would continue to operate for the foreseeable future.

Encina’s 400-foot smokestack, a regional landmark, would stand until the old plant is razed.

Steve Hoffmann, president of NRG’s Western division, has said the site is ideal for a power station because it’s already industrial. The new plant would take the place of three old fuel tanks that would be demolished.

It would consist of two 100-foot-tall plants and two 140-foot-tall stacks sunk in a 30-foot-deep basin.

“There is no more ideal place,” Hoffmann said recently.

He said construction of a new plant is necessary to remove the old one because new, more efficient turbines will replace old ones.

“We share the city’s interest in closing the old power plant,” Hoffmann said.

The proposed plant would be air-cooled, as opposed to the old one, which was built in 1954 and requires ocean water for cooling.

The City Council has voted to oppose the plant, saying power plants no longer rely on ocean water and that heavy industry doesn’t belong on the coast. City officials say the plant could be built elsewhere, clearing the coastal property for recreation.

The new plant is supported by the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, among other groups.

Baker will represent Power of Vision alongside co-founder Arnold Roe, a former engineering professor at the University of California Los Angeles and Cal State Northridge who also worked in the energy field. Roe said NRG’s proposal is “the wrong technology in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Baker said Power of Vision has gathered 2,300 signatures on petitions from people who oppose the plant, and many will speak at the hearings.